India didn't have the best of starts in the Women's T20 World Cup 2024 as the Women in Blue succumbed to a heavy defeat on the hands of New Zealand in their opening match. Their lack-luster batting was heavily criticised and former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar came up with a valuable advice ahead of the much-anticipated clash against arch-rivals Pakistan on Sunday, 6th October.
The Kiwis batting first, put up a target of 161 on a slow Dubai pitch, which is a very good total. But the Indians gave away their wickets cheaply, mostly while playing the big shots. Five batters finished with double-digit scores with captain Harmanpreet Singh being the highest scorer with 15 runs only as they were bundled out for 102.
Manjrekar feels that if Harmanpreet Kaur and co. follow Virat Kohli's gameplan and play sensibly, it would reap benefits for sure.
"One advice for India against Pakistan would be that we have witnessed that Dubai's pitch is still very slow and fresh. What they did with New Zealand, playing big shots down the pitch. Avoid this and play sensibly. Like Virat Kohli takes ones and twos and if you want to hit a six, don't hit it straight," Manjrekar said in a video posted by Star Sports.
Pakistan come into this match with a lot of confidence, having defeated defending Asian Champions Sri Lanka in their first game. As far as the head-to-head stats are concerned regarding this battle of the rivals, India have so far won 5 games in 7 matches against the Women in Green in this competition. Their last meeting was in the 2023 World Cup and the Women in Blue ended up as winners by 7 wickets.
At the time of writing this article, Pakistan after winning the toss were at 25/2 after 5 overs of play. Omaima Sohail and Muneeba Ali are at the crease for the batting side. While, Renuka Singh took the wicket of opener Gull Feroza and Deepti Sharma removed Sidra Amin.